The blue agave goes out on a high note.
When I left Santa Barbara in November 2014, the blue agave growing within the Las Agave complex I was visiting was large but not remarkable. Just an ordinary agave. But something dramatic happened by the time I returned here in May 2015. It had sprouted an awesome 18-foot green stalk rising skyward from its midst. The stalk was growing at a rate of about one foot per week.
I have never seen anything like this before and I learnt that it is called an influorescence. The influorescence at the top flowers but then three months later the whole plant turns brown and dies. Already I can see the rising stalk is sapping the vitality away from the fillets at the base of the plant. These large fillets have dagger-like blue tips and jagged blue tags along the edge. This is not a plant to get too close to.
The local gardener tells me this particular plant is about 15 years old.
What about the trajectory of human life? When do we reach our peak? I look at my own life as I grow older. I have this urge to finally grow up after all these years; to sprout wings and rise in consciousness; to blossom to my full potential; to mature in wisdom in my old age. Of course, the body will physically decline as I get older, but the mind and intellect can still soar.
The agave puts all its strength into a last skyward thrust. Its destiny is to die shortly after flowering but what a way to go, reaching for the sky.
By Peter Goddard